WOUNDS THAT LEAD YOU BACK (ISAIAH 53:5)

CHRISTIAN BAPTIST TABERNACLE

WOUNDS THAT LEAD YOU BACK

Zechariah 13:6; Isaiah 53:5

APRIL 01, 2018

INTRODUCTION:

-          THE BRIDGE - THE STORY OF SACRIFICE

There once was a bridge operator who had a young son whom he dearly loved. They were inseparable. The young boy often asked to go with his father to watch him work - to watch him raise and lower the draw bridge, allowing the boats to pass under or the passenger trains to cross over. One day the father relented and allowed his son to come with him.

"Stay here at a safe distance," the father warned the boy, "while I go and raise the bridge for the coming boat." The boy stayed where his father had left him and watched the bridge as it slowly lifted up in the sky. Suddenly, the boy heard the faint cry of an approaching passenger train - coming quite a bit sooner than had been expected. The father, up in the control room, could hear neither the whistle of the train nor the warning cry of his son.

The boy saw the train racing closer and closer, and he started to run along the platform to reach his father. Knowing there was a lever he could pull near the operating gears of the bridge, the boy ran to the door in the platform and tried to lower himself down to reach the lever. Losing his balance, he fell in to where the gears came together and was caught.

At the same time the father saw his son fall down into the hole in the platform, he saw the fast approaching train. In horror, he realized that if he didn't start lowering the bridge immediately, it would not be down in time for the train to pass safely. The train would crash into the river below killing hundreds of innocent people.

The man was faced with an unimaginable dilemma - race to save his son at the cost of hundreds of lives, or sacrifice his son to save the passengers on the train.

He made the only choice he could and pulled the lever to lower the bridge. In spite of the noise of the descending bridge and the oncoming train, he still heard the anguished screams of his beloved son being crushed to death between the gears of the bridge.

The father ran to the platform as the train was passing by. Most people on the train simply ignored the man crying on the platform. Others looked out of the window and stared, totally oblivious of the unspeakable sacrifice that had just been made on their behalf. They gave no other thought or concern to this man who had just given up what was most precious to him so that they could live.

Do you see the parallel? Can you understand the picture this story paints?

The sacrifice of One offers life to all. God did not take pleasure in watching His Son die. It had to have been agonizing for God to stand by as Jesus died covered in the intense darkness of all of our sins. There was no choice...it had to happen. The sacrifice had to be made in order for us to be able to live.

And like those people on the train, we have the choice regarding what we will do with that sacrifice. We can choose to ignore it - to ignore God - not even bothering consider what God did on our behalf. We can choose to look at God briefly - to glance in passing - and then continue on with our own priorities and plans. Or we can acknowledge what it was that God sacrificed to give us life. We can embrace it and accept it on our behalf, and choose to live our lives for God. http://louiethebunny.blogspot.com/2010/08/bridge-story-of-sacrifice.html

-          Remember the time you have accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour and upon remembering you’ll be reminded also the sacrifice Christ did for us. Let’s ask ourselves, “How long have you been a Christian?” Can we name some sacrifices we have done? Or in contrary, can we recall many the times we have disobeyed God instead? Sometimes the years we have been a Christian leads to become complacent in the ministry which make us feel “nothing” or it’s like we don’t feel the presence of God. If we don’t be aware and watchful, we will depart from God’s presence.  People around you may not notice that you’re starting to go astray but you see and feel it by yourself.  For now you are a silent but don’t wait for the time that your lukewarm situation is so evident.

Do you have ideas what happen to Christians who draw away from God’s presence?

2 Peter 2:22  (KJV)

But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Your life is worse compare to the time you were not Christian.  Imagine the kind of life, “eating your vomit,” describes in this verse.

Don’t wait for situations in your life become complicated. If this happens, it’s very hard for you to go back.  You already knew God sacrifices on the cross but in our lesson for today, I pray this would help you consider not just His sacrifices but also HIS WOUNDS!  

LESSON OUTLINE:

      1)   THE CONTUSED WOUND ( MICAH 5:1; MATT. 27:29-30; JOHN 18:22)

-          Jesus Christ had this wound when they smote (paghampas in tagalog) Him. This is a wound produced by a blunt object (pasa in tagalog). Such a wound should result from being struck with a rod, as foretold in Micah 5:1. The event is recorded in Matthew 27:29- 30 and a similar type of injury in John 18:22.

“And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.

-          After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.  https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/words/Blindfolded

-          Everyone experience contusion and we know personally what the feeling of having one contusion. When it is touched it is so painful and imagine our Lord Jesus Christ experienced many contusions on his body.

        2)   THE LACERATED WOUND (ISAIAH 50:6, MATT.27:26, JOHN 19:1)

-          A wound produced by a tearing instrument. Lacerations in Jesus suffering were produced by scourging or whipping (pagbubogbog in tagalog). The scourge was made of thongs each tipped with bone or metal. Christ would have received such a wound (paglaslas in tagalog) from the scourging. Prophesied in Isaiah 50:6 and fulfilled in Matthew 27:26 and John 19:1. Eusebius describes not specifically Christ’s scourging, but rather the typical pre-crucifixion scourging by the Romans and note the following: many bled to death before being crucified, in many cases not only was the back of the person scourged cut open in all directions, but the eyes were torn out, the face and breast were torn open and often teeth knocked out.

-          A Roman implement for severe bodily punishment. Horace calls it horribile flagellum. It consisted of a handle, to which several cords or leather thongs were affixed, which were weighted with jagged pieces of bone or metal, to make the blow more painful and effective. It is comparable, in its horrid effects, only with the Russian knout. The victim was tied to a post (Acts 22:25) and the blows were applied to the back and loins, sometimes even, in the wanton cruelty of the executioner, to the face and the bowels. In the tense position of the body, the effect can easily be imagined. So hideous was the punishment that the victim usually fainted and not rarely died under it. https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/scourge-scourging/

-          Have you imagined the kind of scourging Romans did to Jesus?

    3)   THE ABRASED WOUND (JOHN 19:16-17, MATT.27:32, MARK 15:20-21; LUKE 23:26)

-          It is caused by some object rubbing or scraping against the skin (sobrang paggasgas ng balat). Christ would have suffered this type of wound when He was forced to carry the wooden cross upon His back.  We must realize that this was His back that was already torn upon by scourging. John 19: 16-17, Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:20-21 and Luke 23:26. His physical condition was so poor that He could not continue to carry the cross and Simon was compelled to carry the remainder.

     4)   THE PENETRATING WOUND (MATT,27:29; JOHN 19:2) (bumaon na sugat)

-          It is a deep wound caused by a sharp-pointed instrument. This happened to Jesus when they placed upon His head a “crown of thorns,” Matthew 27:29 and John 19:2. These wounds were undoubtedly deepened when they smote Him on the head with the reed, Matthew 27:20.

     5)   THE PERFORATING WOUNDS  (JOHN 20: 24-29)

-          The perforating wound (butas-butas) is one that pierces through the body at some point. When Christ was crucified, they drove metal spikes through Him. The evidence of this wound when doubting Thomas mentioned it in John 20:25.

      6)   THE INCISED WOUND (JOHN 19:34)

-          The incised wound (paghiwa) is a cut produced by a sharp edged instrument. Jesus Christ received this type of wound when the Roman soldier thrust his spear into Christ’s side to ensure that He was dead.

CONCLUSION:

We know the great sacrifice Christ did in order for us to redeem from the penalty of sin but the details of his sacrifices are sometimes ignored by some. Honestly, from 1991-2004, I knew not the details of Christ crucifixion; I just heard some from preaching and sermon but to personally and intentionally read it, no! That’s why when I watched the movie, I can’t control my emotions. When the movie was out, there were some against and said, “This movie was so cruel and it’s not true” but Bible says in Isaiah 53:2, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him,” this verse shows what sufferings he experienced (no beauty in him).

What wounds do we have at this moment? (elaborate) Were these wounds of Jesus enough to lead us back to God?